Duke at home in royal company

Racing : Duke Of Marmalade gave jockey Johnny Murtagh and trainer Aidan O'Brien their third winner of the week with a brilliant…

Racing: Duke Of Marmalade gave jockey Johnny Murtagh and trainer Aidan O'Brien their third winner of the week with a brilliant victory in the Prince of Wales's Stakes at Royal Ascot.

The four-year-old stormed clear in the final furlong to quickly put daylight between himself and his rivals.

The even-money favourite went on to win impressively by four lengths from Phoenix Tower (7-1), who was a short-head in front of Pipedreamer (11-1).

Murtagh had Duke Of Marmalade well away but Petara Bay and O'Brien's second-string Red Rock Canyon led the field in the early stages.

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Red Rock Canyon soon established a clear lead from Petara Bay with Pressing third and Duke Of Marmalade ideally placed just behind in fourth.

Pressing hit the front two furlongs out but there was no containing Murtagh once he switched Duke Of Marmalade towards the centre of the course to make his challenge.

The response was instant, with the market leader romping home to give O'Brien and Murtagh their first success in this Group One showpiece.

O'Brien said: "He's an unbelievable horse, he's the real deal. He had pins in his legs last year and he had bad fractures in his legs after Goodwood as a two-year-old. Last year we were never really able to train him as he was semi-lame all the time.

"He wasn't able to use himself the way he is able to this year and he's very athletic now. This year he's shown more pace but you'd say, looking at him, that he wouldn't have a problem going further than a mile and a quarter either.

"He has a lot of options open to him and he's travelling and quickening very well this year."

Murtagh added: "He was the first horse that I rode when I came back from Dubai. He's up there with the best horses I've ever ridden and today was the big target.

"He's been showing speed at home and I ride him in a lot of his work. As Aidan says, if we had five or six like him we'd be very happy."

William Haggas, meanwhile, has been hitting the target with great regularity of late and his golden spell continued with the impressive performance of Aqlaam in the Jersey Stakes.

The least experienced member of the field along with Godolphin's Calming Influence, he arrived at Royal Ascot on the back of only two previous runs.

However, he has always been highly regarded at Haggas' Newmarket yard and the dogs were barking beforehand as from an early-morning price of 12-1 he was returned a well-backed 13-2 chance.

Always in the first half dozen under Richard Hills, he quickened up in the style of a seriously good horse two furlongs out.

Despite drifting, he powered away under a right-hand drive to beat Godolphin's other representative, Il Warrd, by two lengths with 2000 Guineas fifth Dream Eater staying on to take third.

Ryan Moore must have thought he was going to break his Royal Ascot duck on Heaven Sent in the Windsor Forest when he streaked clear two furlongs out.

The heavily-supported Michael Stoute-trained mare appeared to have the race in the bag but Christophe Lemaire was still to ask for his effort on Sabana Perdida (4-1).

As Moore launched one final push, his mount drifted towards the centre of the track, giving the Alain De Royer-Dupre runner an opening she took with both hands. At the line the winning margin was three-quarters of a length but she was going away.

The winner had finished third behind Nannina in the same race 12 months ago as an unconsidered 50-1 chance, but her claims were far more obvious this time.

Royal Ascot 2.30
1 Aqlaam (R Hills) 13-2
2 Il Warrd (L Dettori) 10-1
3 Dream Eater (F Norton) 7-1
16 ran

Royal Ascot 3.05
1 Sabana Perdida (C P Lemaire) 4-1
2 Heaven Sent (R L Moore) 9-4 Fav
3 Grecian Dancer (J Murtagh) 8-1
13 ran

Royal Ascot 3.45
1 Duke Of Marmalade (J Murtagh) Evens Fav
2 Phoenix Tower (T E Durcan) 7-1
3 Pipedreamer (J Fortune) 11-1

Royal Ascot 4.20
1 Mr Aviator (R Hughes) 25-1
2 Docofthebay (S W Kelly) 10-1
3 Royal Power (A Nicholls) 25-1
4 Kavachi (F Norton) 33-1
29 ran

Royal Ascot 4.55
1 Langs Lash (A Munro) 25-1
2 Shyrl (L Dettori) 12-1
3 Connie Mac (S Sanders) 25-1
17 ran

Royal Ascot 5.30
1 Festivale (K McEvoy) 10-1
2 Illusion (S Sanders) 7-1
3 Shabiba (Martin Dwyer) 7-1
4 Shaker (J P Spencer) 18-1
16 ran